Bridging Global Standards and Local Expertise: A New Era in Safety and Competence

Abstract The energy industry established a skills authority to improve workforce safety and competence. Its primary objective is to promote global safety standards and regional requirements throughout the sector, particularly in high-risk offshore environments, ensuring the development of a skilled and competent workforce. This involves ensuring consistent safety and competence training across diverse locations while addressing specific regional needs. As an industry initiative, the organisation also reinvests considerable resources in the cultivation of the next generation of the energy workforce and develops innovative solutions to meet the evolving needs of high-risk industries. The aim is to develop adaptable standards that can meet the unique safety challenges in different geographical areas as well as in emerging sectors such as hydrogen, CCUS, and offshore wind, enhancing overall safety and competence and producing a mobile workforce ready to meet the challenges of the global energy transition. Collaboration with industry stakeholders to identify specific regional challenges and best practices helps to drive the development of training standards that are both globally consistent and regionally relevant. Its focus on continuous improvement leads to standards that are readily adaptable to the evolving needs of the energy industry. Local examples, such as the successful roll-out of the Compressed Air Emergency Breathing System (CA-EBS) standard and the helideck operation standards in the Americas region, showcase global safety standards and regional requirements through one standard setting body.